Confessions of a Twitter Failure

If I were Twitter, every time you typed in my url you'd get the fail whale. I'm not saying that I'm a failure, just a Twitter failure. Let me explain.

I am a social media junkie, and once I began tweeting, I became one of (and continue to be) the loudest supporters of tweeting educators. "You don't have a Twitter account!?! Let's sit down and I'll help get you started." Those words frequently exit my mouth.

Although I am a social media junkie, I am not all that concerned with my social media statistics. For example, I don't worry about how many people follow or retweet me, who likes my Facebook status, how many circles I am in, or how many followers, re-pins, how many views my videos get, or likes I get on my pin boards. It sounds odd, I know, because that is one of the reasons why people use social networks; to measure their self-worth. For me, it was always about the learning and sharing. (I know...you need followers and what to not to give, but you can give to even one.)

Anyways, I was somehow convinced to follow back every tweeter that follows me. Some say that it's the Twittiquette thing to do; unless they're solicitors or spammers. I understand that; educators supporting each other and helping each other gain a following. So...as of right now, 7:47 pm I am following 723 people. Let me ask you, if you were at an event with 723 people would you be able to chat with each and every one of them within an hour or two? Probably not, and definitely not if you wanted it to be meaningful.

That's what has happened to me, and I have officially become a Twitter Failure. How so? I am following so many people that I find it overwhelming to scroll through my feed; particularly with anywhere from 2-7 new tweets every few seconds. Can you say Twitter overload? There's research to back me up, too! I remember reading about Dunbar's Number sometime last year.

I find it a bit easier to follow hashtags or my lists; where I get a lot of great 'stuff' and chat with a huge variety of folks that way. But since I began following 700+ tweducators, I can't stomach the thought of even scrolling through those because I have to get past my homepage first (I use Hootesuite). Sadly, I'm going to have to decrease the number of people I am following to reclaim my Twitter sanity and once again be a tweeting success.